Goat Island to be Repopulated

Last week there was a discussion on Facebook about Goat Island and how sad it was that the goats were gone. Trinity County News finally got the information we needed to share the good news about what’s happening with Goat Island. People around Trinity County have memories and stories from years of having the goats so close to us. Goat island is very popular. Families have camped out on the tiny piece of land nestled in the Trinity River, next to Highway 356 between Sebastopol and Trinity for as long as most folks around here can remember. It has been a favorite spot for boats to stop for years. Trinity County’s kids love to camp and swim around the island. Losing the goats was like losing a piece of Trinity County’s history.

There has been a movement to repopulate Goat Island for some time now. The TRA has given its approval for the controlled placement of Spanish Goats on the island. Sonny Johnson, Don Ford, and James Gilmore have been leading figures in supporting the goat s on the island in the past. During the winter they fed the goats, checked on them, and made sure they were safe.

At one-point hunters hunted them until only one goat was remaining. However, the numbers increased over time back up to 27. We need the goats there because they keep the bush and snakes down to a safe level, so it only makes sense to get more goats on the island.

Trinity County needs fifteen Spanish Goats donated to repopulate Goat Island. Once we get more details, we will share who to contact if you would like to donate a goat or money to this project. In the meantime, we invite you to contact us at contact@trinity-county.news if you would like to donate and we can pass the information to those leading the repopulation effort.

Dr. Sharon Schuetz has a Ph.D. in clinical Christian counseling and has counseled hundreds of families over the past 25 years. In 2013 she and a friend started the website Lady-Patriots.com with 26 different authors and millions of visitors until she sold it in 2016. Since then, she has worked in her local county, Trinity, Texas in the Republican Party, Republican Women, the Trinity County Patriots, and is the former editor of the local newspaper, The Trinity Standard. She recently accepted the position of Secretary of the Trinity County Republican Party. Sharon and her husband of 42 years, Michael, pastor the Sebastopol Community Church in Trinity, and have three children and ten grandchildren.